


Burning hot

by Windfighter



Series: Whumptober 2019 [6]
Category: Stand Still Stay Silent
Genre: I Wrote This Instead of Sleeping, I forgot Kitty again, Multi, Sickfic, Sorry Emil, Whumptober 2019, no beta we die like men
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-10
Updated: 2019-10-10
Packaged: 2020-12-07 20:06:47
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,303
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20981612
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Windfighter/pseuds/Windfighter
Summary: It starts with a cough, but it quickly goes downhill from there





	Burning hot

**Author's Note:**

> For whumptober and the prompt "Delirium"

It started with a cough. The others hushed him and Emil tried to keep the coughes following that one quiet. They make camp for the night, Mikkel prepares the dinner. Emil knows he should be starving but he isn't. Nausea rips through his body as he stares at the food and he pus it down, lays down on the ground and rests his eyes. His eyes are heavy even though he got a good night's sleep the day before. He wakes up shivering five hours later, wrapped in both his own and Lalli's capes and still pretty close to the fire. Another cough rips through his body, alerts Mikkel who's on guard duty. Emil presses a hand over his mouth, tries to stop coughing before the others start stirring but it's too late. Mikkel places a hand against his forehead. Emil leans into the touch – Mikkel's hand is cool and it relieves the light headache Emil wasn't aware of until it was gone.

”Slight fever”, Mikkel mutters. ”Nothing dangerous, go back to sleep.”

Emil nods, buries under the capes and falls asleep. It's two hours until another cough wakes him up. Lalli hands him some tea and stares at him until he drinks it and goes back to sleep. He sleeps the rest of the night. Reynir shakes him awake for breakfast and it takes him a few minutes to blink the sleep out of his eyes. His head is hurting worse and his throat feels like sandpaper. He coughs, sits up. Sigrun hands him some tea and he drinks it, lets it soothe his throat. He wonders if he looks like death walked over him and judging by the gaze Mikkel sends him he probably does. He pulls his knees up and rests on them.

”Will you be able to keep walking today?”

”Yeah”, Emil's voice is hoarse and he coughs. ”Yeah, of course. Need to find Onni.”

Mikkel's hand on his shoulder is heavy and Emil almost buckles under it. He thinks he should have said no, but he knows how important this is for Lalli. He drinks the rest of the tea, almost falls asleep again and blinks several times when Sigrun pokes at him with her foot.

”Time to head out, fire-boy.”

Emil gets to his feet. He's a little wobbly at first, but manages to steady himself after a few steps. It should get easier once he starts moving.

It does not get easier. The coughing starts getting really bad around noon and his body's reaction to it has so far been to throw up twice. His head feels like it's about to split open and he digs the heel of his palms into his eyes to relieve some of the pain. The sun is still bright, they have at least four more hours before they need to start looking for a place to make camp. Emil stumbles. Lalli's hands steady him and Emil leans into his friend.

”Feel bad”, he whispers.

He doesn't know what the others are doing, his eyes are closed and he does not want to open them right now.

”Hurts”, he coughs out and gestures vaguely towards his head.

Lalli's hands press against his ears, making everything go quiet and wow, that helped. He blinks his eyes open and nope, he should _not _have done that. Searing hot pain stabs through his head and he whimpers, clenches his eyes and hides his face against Lalli's shoulder. Huge hands grab him, turns him around. The movement forces Lalli to let go of his ears and makes nausea return. Emil presses a hand over his mouth and tries to breathe through it. Mikkel's hand presses against his forehead again and another tiny amount of headache disappears. Emil starts sagging, but Mikkel holds him up.

”The fever is worse”, Mikkel says, his low slightly booming voice sending vibrations through Emil's skull and the nausea is back with a vengeance. He slaps Mikkel's chest, is allowed on his knees and then he throws up again. Bile because his stomach is still empty and maybe he should eat something but he's not sure he can. When his body calms down he sags again, falls into Mikkel.

”Helvete”, he breathes out, ”sorry. Wasn't... bad...”

He swallows, tries to keep a new wave of nausea at bay. Mikkel puts a hand against his neck and the pressure is soothing.

”Can you keep going a little longer?”

”Gimme...” Emil swallows again. ”Gimme five.”

Five minutes to gather himself. Mikkel hums in affirmation and Emil rests.

When they finally reach camp Emil feels like he's actively dying. He's shivering hard, his body drenched in sweat and the headache almost ends him with every step he takes, every sound he hears. The coughing has gotten even worse, leaves him out of breath and on the verge of fainting. He can barely stand upright and Reynir's hand on his back is the only think keeping him moving. He almost collapses to the ground when they stop, but both lalli and Reynir grabs him, keeps him standing. He blinks, catches a glimps of their camping spot. It's a small cabin. Run down by weather but still standing and it will provide slightly better protection against the elements than the trees.

”There might even be a bed”, Mikkel says to lighten the mood and Emil's head is exploding again. He presses against Reynir this time and Reynir just wraps and arm around him to hold him steady. He blacks out after that. He somewhat comes back when they sit him down and strips him of his clothes. There's a bed and he's being tucked in. The sheet smell offensive, causes the headache to spike again, but then lalli's cape is placed under his head and he presses his nose into it.

”No snot on it”, Lalli whispers to him.

”No snot”, Emil thinks he's confirming but he blacks out again. They shake him awake later and makes him drink water before tucking him in again. Another bout of coughing jolts him awake, he manages to lean over the edge of the bed before the water comes back up. He falls back against the bed and is asleep within seconds.

Someone's holding him. He thinks he can feel a braid tickling his hand. He falls asleep again.

The headache has lessened a little, but coughing still makes it feel like it is going to split. Emil whines and turnes around, presses against whoever is sleeping in the bed with him. They smell like Lalli and Emil can relax. He's so very cold though. He shivers, presses closer to Lalli. Lalli whispers in Finnish to him. He doesn't try to understand, just let it lure him back to sleep.

”His fever keeps rising”, Emil hears next time he wakes up. He blinks. He's pressed against Lalli and someone, Reynir probably, is curled up behind him, an arm loosely placed over Emil's waist. He doesn't feel nauseous, just very, very tired. He blinks, but his eyes doesn't open again. Instead he's in his old house. Sofia is there, taking care of the dishes. Reynir is there as well and Emil sits down beside him, leans against his shoulder. Lalli arrives as well, sits down next to them and places his cape over Emil. Emil is exhausted.

”'m sick”, he mumbles. ”y' 've t' be n'ce.”

Reynir squeezes his knee and Lalli is quiet. It's nice, Emil thinks, quiet. No one talks, which is weird when both he and Reynir is around but his grateful because he's not sure how much he trusts his head to not hurt. They listen to Sofia working in the kitchen, to the wind howling outside the window, to the soft ticking of the clock in the living room and to the fire eating away at the wood around them.

”Oh”, Emil blinks his eyes open. ”Is th's drea'.”

He's too tired to move. Usually he will when the flames starts creeping in, but he can't move. Lalli nudges him, tries to get him to wake up, but he just closes his eyes and pulls the cape over his head. It's getting hot though.

”Y' go”, he mumbles.

Lalli's nose bumps against his ear and the ghost of his breath dances over it.

”You have to wake up.”

Emil's head rolls off Reynir's shoulder, falls to the back of the couch. He blinks, watches the flames eat away on the ceiling. He blinks, watches the flames eat away on the ceiling. He blinks a few more times. His breathing stops. His head is sending out signals of pain that gets dulled from the adrenaline he can feel rushing through his body, making him ready to flee. He shakes the two people sharing the bad with him. He can't take his eyes away from the flames.

”Wake up.”

The words are only a whisper. He starts coughing, curls in on himself as pain rips through his lungs, throat and head. He stares at the flames again. They're on the wall to. He grabs Lalli, pulls himself and Lalli back, away from them. Reynir falls to the floor with a grunt and Mikkel and Sigrun starts stirring as well. Emil coughs again. Lalli looks at him, starts tugging at him to get him to relax, to see what's wrong, but Emil takes a tighter grip around him. They have to get out. The sheets catch on fire as well and he pulls himself over the edge of the bed, Lalli falls with him, lands on top of him. Emil starts coughing again. He can't breath, there are black spots clouding his vision, but the flames around them are bright.

”Have to... out...” he wheezes when he can get the tiniest amount of oxygen into his lungs.

Lalli looks worried, examines him and Emil shakes his head, pushes Lalli's hands away. They don't have time, they have to get out before the cabin collapses and they're buried under burning logs.

”Fire”, he get out. He tries to sit up, but his arms are too weak. They're all looking at him now and why are they looking at him instead of getting away from the flames? He wants to scream at them to run, but it turns into another coughing fit. Lalli disappears, hopefully leaving the burning cabin, but then Mikkel is infront of his face instead, his hands holding Emil's head, forcing him to look at Mikkel.

”Breathe with me. In.... and out.... In.... and out...”

He tried. He couldn't see the flames any longer. His body was exhausted. He breathed in, and in, and in. And out. In, and out. His eyes started slipping shut.

”Stay with me a little longer. What's going on?”

”F-fire... Building's burning.”

”The only thing burning here is you”, Mikkel frowns. ”Where is the fire?”

Emil coughs, breaths.

”Bed.”

Mikkel glances to the side. Emil's eyes starts slipping shut again. They're going to die, he couldn't save them. Mikkel gives him a small shake and he blinks himself awake as Mikkel helps him sit up. The whole bed is burning now. Mikkel looks at Emil, waves his hand infront of Emil's eyes before reaching over the bed with it. He pats the flames, the mattress.

”There's no fire, Emil.”

Emil's breathing is getting shorter again. Mikkel pulls his hand back, shows it to Emil. It's unharmed. Emil looks at the flames and Mikkel puts his hand through them again, shows it to Emil again. He repeats it three more times. Emil's breathing evens out.

”H-hallu... ci...”

He yawns. Mikkel nods.

”Hallucinations. They happen sometimes when the fever gets too high. We'll try to get it down for you.”

Another yawn. Cough. Emil's eyes fall shut and Mikkel lets them this time. He picks Emil up, puts him on the couch and wraps a blanket around him. Emil slips back to sleep.

Emil awakes to Sigrun's grin way too close to his face. He lets out a shriek that turns into a coughing fit. When it finally subsides he falls back against the pillow and lets out a low groan, hiding his eyes under his arm.

”Fever's better”, Sigrun says.

”Buh?”

Emil moves his arm so he can look at Sigrun. His head barely hurts.

”We got your fever down. Big guy was really worried for a while there.”

”Uuuh...”

”None of us got any sleep after you woke us up though. You owe us big time.”

”Uuuh...”

Sigrun blinks. Emil blinks as well. He rubs his eyes, yawns and coughs.

”How you feeling?”

”Urgh.”

”Not really up for talking, eh? It's cool, I get that.”

Sigrun sits down on the table. Emil rubs his eyes again before sitting up. Lalli's hands grab him, help him until he can lean against the back of the couch. Reynir appears as well, holds a bowl out for Emil.

”Think you can eat?”

Emil accepts the bowl, rests it on his legs. Reynir sits down next to him and he slips down on purpose, rests his head against Reynir's shoulder. Lalli sits down on his other side and Emil wants to pull him closer, but only reaches out, grabs Lalli's hand and gives it a quick squeeze.

”Eat”, Lalli says. ”Then sleep. You need rest.”

”Yeah”, Emil pulls a hand across his face, then lets it fall down into his lap, almost landing it in the bowl. ”I'm sorry.”

Lalli leans against him.

”No sorry. Just get better.”

Emil raises the bowl to his lips and takes a few cautious sips. His stomach isn't protesting, but he barely finish half of it before deciding not to risk it. Mikkel takes the bowl from him, Sigrun ruffles his hair and then he slips back to slip, safe and warm where he is sandwiched between Reynir and Lalli.


End file.
